Abstract
Solar power, as one of renewable energy, holds potential application for producing steam which relies on high-temperature liquid by traditional methods. Herein, steam was generated by a bio-inspired strategy derived from the plants transpiration using a Printed Recyclable Carbon Membrane (PRCM). The membrane structure facilitated the concentration of carbon particles for the photoreaction and the heat generation for water evaporation, thereby improving the photo-thermal conversion efficiency. The PRCM achieved the best steady evaporation efficiency of 51.9%, which was 5.6 times higher than the value for water and recycling tests were demonstrated. The carbon particles were separated from the water under the magnetism action, a convenient approach that avoided secondary pollution resulting from the disintegration of the PRCM. Rapid preparation, low cost, and reusability of the printed carbon membrane allow for photo-thermal applications such as solar steam generation and seawater desalination.
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This work is financially supported by the China National Key Research and Development Plan Project (2018YFA0702300), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (51676060), and EU ThermaSMART project H2020-MSCA-RISE (778104) Smart thermal management of high power microprocessors using phase-change (ThermaSMART).
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Shi, L., Wang, X., Hu, Y. et al. Bio-inspired Recyclable Carbon Interface for Solar Steam Generation. J Bionic Eng 17, 315–325 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s42235-020-0025-4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s42235-020-0025-4